DrClaire Golledge

Claire offers research supervision in the following areas:

• Teacher practice and professional learning
• History of education and schooling
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education
• Student Voice
• History and humanities education (including civics and citizenship education and legal education)

Current Research Projects

Inside the History Classroom: Portraits of Exemplary Teaching Practice (2026) Routledge.

Supported by extensive classroom-based research, this book offers vivid, fly-on-the-wall portraits of history teaching in action. Drawing on long-term observations of four teachers working in diverse school contexts, it explores what "good" history teaching looks like in practice.

Rather than offering a checklist of strategies or quick fixes, this book delves into the lived complexity of teaching. It examines the structures, relationships, and contextual factors that shape and constrain professional practice, using the theory of practice architectures to illuminate the situated nature of teachers' work. Through rich case studies and the inclusion of student voice, it reveals how exemplary teachers engage, inspire, and adapt to meet the needs of their learners. In doing so, it underscores how good history teaching plays a vital role in shaping society's future by helping students understand the past, think critically about the present, and become informed citizens who can contribute meaningfully to their communities.

The result is a nuanced, engaging, and deeply contextual account of what it means to teach history well - highlighting the relational, intellectual and creative dimensions of exemplary practice. This book will be essential reading for current and future history teachers, as well as researchers and academics interested in the lived realities of classroom practice.

Culturally Nourishing Schooling

We are a collective of researchers from a wide number of Australian universities working in partnership with chosen schools and their local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to improve teachers' understandings and professional practices of authentic and "culturally nourishing" practices including curriculum implementation and teaching. We explore strategies that schools and teachers can use to foster cultural inclusion in learning, and better meet the needs and aspirations of students and their local communities and families.

The project is led by Professor Kevin Lowe, a Gubbi Gubbi man and Scientia Indigenous Research Fellow at the University of NSW. The CNS model is a research-informed framework and takes the form of Learning from Country, professional learning and classroom workshops. I am the lead researcher on the Culturally Nourishing School Leadership component of the project.

Remembering the 'Schools War': Metherell, Unions and the battle for public education in NSW 1988-1990

This project aims to produce the first comprehensive historical study of the landmark education reforms spearheaded by Dr Terry Metherell during his tenure as Education Minister in the NSW Greiner Government (1988-1990). This era of reform in education redefined the structure, governance, and industrial landscape of public education in New South Wales, and precipitated a period of unprecedented industrial unrest and public protest. Metherell's reforms radically transformed NSW public schools and TAFE in the long term. Despite their enduring impact on the education and industrial relations, this era remains largely absent from historical scholarship.

2024-2025 Learning From Country in University settings

2024Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC) Research Impact Accelerator

2025 Funded by One Sydney Many People Grant

Led by Professior Cathie Burgess and working with colleagues in the Sydney School of Nursing and Midwifery, this project seeks to include nursing students participating in Learning from Country, a program developed initially to challenge and broaden education students' understanding of Aboriginal peoples and cultures and build their confidence and skills when working in Aboriginal communities or with Aboriginal students.